Suwon's "Systematic COVID-19 Response" Draws Growing Interest from Other Local Governments

[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Seo Dong-young] Suwon is responding to COVID-19 with a systematic system that manages not only confirmed cases within the city but also overseas arrivals. Inquiries from other local governments seeking to benchmark these measures continue to mount.

▲Safe Return Home—Management of Asymptomatic Overseas Arrivals

From the Suwon-17 confirmed case after visiting Italy on the 8th of this month through the Suwon-41 confirmed case on the 31st, Suwon has seen a total of 25 confirmed cases increase.

Among these, 23 are overseas arrivals or their families. Over the past three weeks, more than 90% of confirmed cases in Suwon have been imported from overseas arrivals.

The city noted that while primary quarantine is conducted at airports, the risk does not disappear even if asymptomatic individuals pass through immigration and return home.

The city determined that isolating overseas arrivals for a certain period before specimen testing and result notification could be key to preventing community transmission, and thus sought measures to manage asymptomatic overseas arrivals.

Beginning the 26th, overseas arrivals have been transported individually, and the Electoral Training Institute building of the National Election Commission began being used as a temporary living facility for asymptomatic overseas arrivals.

For citizens with household registration in the city who apply in advance, they are transported solo from the airport to the Electoral Training Institute, undergo diagnostic testing, and must wait at the facility for 1 to 2 days until results are available.

From the first day of the safe return home service through the 30th—a five-day period—a total of 122 overseas arrivals were admitted and used the service, with 83 safely returning home.

Notably, five arrivals (Suwon-30, Suwon-36, Suwon-37, Suwon-38, Suwon-41) tested positive after undergoing diagnostic testing at the Electoral Training Institute as of the morning of the 31st.

Had the safe return home service not been provided, there was a high likelihood that their families would have been infected or the infection risk would have spread into the community.

Providing temporary living facilities to asymptomatic overseas arrivals is the first in Suwon. Nearby local governments such as Pyeongtaek City and Eumseong County, Chungcheongbuk Province, have shown interest in the safe arrival service.

▲Safe Accommodations—Family Safety is Public Safety

Management of overseas arrivals does not end once specimen testing results come back negative.

Preventing community spread requires two weeks of self-quarantine, and there are cases demonstrating this.

In the case of Suwon-23, confirmed on the 23rd, the individual visited France, returned home, and refrained from going out; however, due to their residential circumstances living with family, not all risks could be managed.

Consequently, three family members—Suwon-24, Suwon-25, and Suwon-26—all tested positive the next day.

In other words, it is no exaggeration to say that the key to overseas import management is self-quarantine of arrivals, but practical difficulties are substantial.

There are limits to accommodating arrivals in temporary living facilities, and there are risks in utilizing general lodging facilities.

Thus, the city is utilizing 'safe accommodations' where arrivals self-quarantine at their own homes while families use other lodging.

The safe accommodations service, which began on the 26th, is based on cooperation with major hotels in Suwon.

Room rates at five hotels—Ibis Ambassador, Novotel Ambassador, Ramada Plaza, Courtyard Marriott, and Value Highend—are discounted by up to 70%.

The service targets not overseas arrivals but their families. By keeping arrivals at home while families use hotels, it does not burden hotels while enabling practical self-quarantine.

Safe accommodations service is similarly receiving inquiries from municipal-level local governments including Jeonju, Ansan, and Gangnam-gu, and is being evaluated as a successful response case.

▲Temporary Living Facilities—Isolation of Confirmed Case Contacts

Earlier, the city led mature response efforts by being the first among basic local governments to establish and operate temporary living facilities for those in self-quarantine, including confirmed case contacts.

At a time when social controversy was mounting regarding how to utilize living facilities after overseas Koreans from Wuhan arrived, the city persuaded residents of Seodun-dong and was able to utilize the Suwon Youth Hostel as a temporary living facility.

Subsequently, families and contacts of confirmed cases used the facility, preventing community spread through thorough self-quarantine.

The family of the first confirmed resident recorded in Suwon, who lived in Cheoncheon-dong, and residents of the same building were the first to use it; families of confirmed cases in Suwon, workplace contacts, and overseas arrivals are currently using the facility.

As of March 30, 49 people were admitted and completed self-quarantine lasting from as short as 3 days to as long as 2 weeks, with 32 discharged and 17 currently in use.

These temporary living facilities have also attracted many inquiries by phone from nearby cities including Seongnam, Hanam, Guri, Pyeongtaek, and Yongin regarding establishment and operation.

▲Transparent Information Disclosure—Standard for Citizen Communication

The city is receiving praise for providing rapid and accurate information to citizens regarding the COVID-19 situation.

Just two days after the first COVID-19 confirmed case occurred, on January 22, the city opened a dedicated COVID-19 page on its website (https://www.suwon.go.kr), posting infection status tables and disease prevention guidelines. Subsequently, the city gathered citizen input and continuously expanded and improved information with visual effects so necessary information could be viewed at a glance.

Accordingly, approximately 20 types of information are currently organized on the city's dedicated COVID-19 page, including ▲visualization of outbreak situations ▲kind sharing ▲quarantine and facility closure maps ▲mask sales locations and usage instructions ▲screening clinic status ▲COVID-19 situation reports ▲confirmed patient movement routes.

In particular, on February 3, the city sent an official notice to local governments nationwide offering to share COVID-19 website source code, and the COVID-19 website format created by Suwon has since spread to 19 cities, counties, and districts nationwide.

Additionally, information about confirmed case occurrences and movement routes is rapidly disseminated through SNS such as Facebook in situation report format, and nearby local governments have increasingly adopted similar formats.

Mayor Yeom Tae-young of Suwon stated, "Carelessness can collapse the quarantine barriers we have built in an instant. Overseas arrivals must protect one another through 'more thorough self-quarantine,' and all citizens through 'much stronger social distancing' to prevent additional community transmission."